Rockefeller family holdings shrinking in Glenville

Maggie Gordon

Updated 10:16 pm, Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Rockefellers first began purchasing property in Greenwich in the 1870s, when financier William Avery Rockefeller John D. Rockefeller s brother began buying unconnected properties and stringing them together into a massive estate. At one point, the family s cache of land exceeded 400 acres, making them one of the town s largest landowners, even in a time of great estates.
Photo: Contributed Photo

The Rockefeller family has sold property and relinquished claims to more than 25 acres of land in the Glenville section of Greenwich since December, putting a sizable dent in the family's total holdings in town. But while the family's land has now shrunk by about 14 percent, a 124-acre parcel neighbors suspect is being primed for development has remained untouched.

Paperwork on file at the assessor's office shows three different transactions between Indian Spring Land Co. -- a large group of shareholders descended from the Rockefeller family -- and INCT, LLC, a Delaware-based corporation, between December and the middle of last month.

Official documents also list INCT, LLC as the 2009 buyer of the 11-acre estate that was formerly home of James Stillman Rockefeller, for $22.5 million after 19 days on the market.

Founded in 2007, INCT, LLC claims an office in Manhattan, town records show. Several layers of legal protection have kept the identity of the owner confidential, though sources say he is a wealthy Russian.

The first of three Rockefeller transactions, listed on Dec. 13, is a quitclaim acknowledging that Indian Spring gave up claims to a strip of land on Indian Spring Road, which Indian Spring Land Company Vice President Jonathan D. DuBois said is to clear up "eccentricities" in property borders.

That same day, INCT, LLC, purchased 23.2 acres from Indian Spring Land Company for $17.5 million in what DuBois said was an "all-cash deal." The land is subdivided into five undeveloped parcels, which range in size from 2 acres to 7.9 acres; some are zoned residential, while others are catalogued as forest land.

Unlike most property transactions filed in Town Hall through straight warranties, the December transaction was brokered through a limited warranty deed, which DuBois said was used in this instance because of questions about the property's history.

"It is normal when you transfer a property that you give assurances to the buyer that you own that property and that the title is clear," he said Wednesday. "Some of these properties had been acquired by Indian Spring 100 years ago, and there apparently were slight discrepancies in the deeds from transfer to transfer to transfer many, many years ago. And in the land records, these irregularities led to questions being raised by buyer's council and we agreed we would transfer everything we owned, but we weren't going to warrant things that had irregularities lost in history."

On January 28 of this year, Indian Spring filed a quitclaim to 7,315 square feet of property -- about one-sixth of an acre -- ceding the land to INCT, LLC.

But INCT, LLC acquired even more property in the area last month. Records also show a transaction filed on Feb. 19 in which the corporation purchased about 4 acres of unimproved land from the Estate of James Stillman Rockefeller for $3.3 million.

The Rockefellers first began purchasing property in Greenwich in the 1870s, when financier William Avery Rockefeller -- John D. Rockefeller's brother, and James Stillman Rockefeller's grandfather -- began buying unconnected properties and stringing them together into a massive estate. At one point, the family's cache of land exceeded 400 acres, making them one of the town's largest landowners, even in a time of great estates.

While the recent transactions more than triple INCT's holdings in Glenville, they have reduced the amount of land owned by Indian Spring Land Company down to roughly 137 acres across seven lots, with the largest parcel at 148 Glenville Road. Zoned as forest, the tax bill for this 124-acre property comes to about $2,800 for the current fiscal year, though neighbors suspect there are plans to develop the property for a hefty profit, a feat the Rockefellers have pulled off before.

Back in 1999, the family's company received approval for the Sherwood Farms development, and began selling off pieces in the million-dollar range. Dozens of homes sprang up in the coming years on Sherwood Farms Lane as well as Stillman Lane.

In the past year, neighbors on Zaccheus Mead Road have argued that the Rockefeller company is attempting to create an entry road off their small, sought-after street in an effort to provide desirable addresses for future developments on the 124-acre parcel, noting that Zaccheus Mead carries more cachet than Glenville Road. The land corporation denies these claims, maintaining that its temporary road is used for the sole purpose of carrying out forest and wetland beautification efforts on the property.

When asked whether there were plans for a subdivision and residential development on the property, DuBois answered, "There are no plans, no commitments have been made.

"And no commitments have been given that they won't be made," he continued. "So for the moment we're engaged in forestry to improve the conservation quality of the land."